Experimental Phase
by KarotsaMused
Summary: End of HSM2. Sharpay drives Ryan home after the talent competition. There are some things you only tell your twin. Affection, affirmation, and off-color humor.


A/N: For a long time, the Bean and I have felt that the ending of HSM2 was unwarranted. Then again, we both love Sharpay too much.

Set at the ending of HSM2. Explores the subtext presented at the baseball game.

* * *

><p>Every night ends. Even those nights where you stand in front of a blue-sky backdrop lit so the clouds glow and you give the symbol of glory you've coveted all summer to your brother to show him that you forgive him.<p>

Every night ends. Even those nights where you run out into the sprinklers and the ground smells hot and wet and green and you ignore the boy you like kissing the girl you don't and scream instead.

Every night ends. And at the end of the night, Sharpay's parents had already left so she and Ryan could play with their little friends, leaving the two of them to ride home in Sharpay's car. She let Ryan put the roof up, leaning her hip on the side of the hood. She let him get in, and buckle his seatbelt, and ride with her until she got to the front gates of the country club.

As they waited for the automatic gate to swing open before them, Sharpay looked over. Softly, she said, "Ryan?"

"Yeah?"

"That was a little unnecessary."

Ryan readjusted his hat and ducked his head. "Sorry. I just - 'Music in Me' is a love song and it would have been weird with more than two people onstage. So I had to change the song."

"Ryan." Sharpay hit the gas, passing through the front gate and turning onto the road.

Ryan huffed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," said Sharpay. She chewed the side of her tongue. "I lost sight of what's important."

"You're pretty ruthless," said Ryan softly.

She half-smiled. "So leave it to me, okay? You're not really that good at it."

"You either," said Ryan. He looked out the window, turning away from her. "Moderation, you know?"

Sharpay ground her hands over the steering wheel. "That goes out the window in a wartime situation."

Ryan sighed. He was quiet for a long moment, then lifted his chin. "I let Chad give me a blowjob."

The car screeched to a halt.

The light at the intersection fifty feet ahead blazed red.

Sharpay _stared_ at Ryan. "You were insane!"

Ryan flushed and fidgeted, his hands in his lap. "He beat me at baseball."

"But you don't know where he's _been_! Oh - wait. No, you're alright. It's Chad-"

It was Ryan's turn to gape. "What do you mean, it's Chad?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Don't even."

"Light's green, Shar."

She glanced at it, and edged the car back into gear. "So. You let him, huh?"

"Ye-eah, I think he'd been having locker room fantasies for a while-"

"_Ryan_! Enough. You realize that's _not_ how it's supposed to go."

Ryan turned toward her with a frown. "Wh-"

"You aren't going to be _anybody's_ experimental phase. Much less _Chad Danforth's_." She narrowed her eyes as she said that name, imagining setting that _ridiculous_ mop of hair ablaze with her mind. "You're better than that. You're an Evans."

Ryan sighed, and leaned back against the passenger seat, tipping his head back. "Could make a list of things you're better than, sis."

Sharpay sighed as well. She looked at her own face in the rearview, at the way the sprinklers had made her hair frizz so she had an awful, out-of-control halo.

"So we make an agreement not to let those things happen again."

Ryan reached out and took one of her curls in his fingers, arranging it so it lay smooth. "Everybody makes mistakes, huh?"

"I danced with Zeke. In the sprinklers."

Ryan dropped her curl. "Zeke. Oh."

She glanced over out of the corner of her eye. With a small smile, she said, "I had to lead half the time."

"Something about the basketball team," said Ryan, and Sharpay laughed.

"I can work on him for you," she ventured, reaching out to touch his arm. "No overdoing it."

Ryan winced. "Um. Thanks, but-"

"Okay."

Ryan paused, blinked. "Okay?"

"Okay. Then I won't."

Ryan stared for a moment, then leaned over the center console and put his hand on her shoulder, and his cheek on his hand. "Okay."

She reached up, stole his hat, and settled it on her own head. She shrugged gently, to make him sit up straight. "And when you're all Happily Ever After with him I expect a steady stream of those cookies."

Ryan snorted, then waggled his eyebrows. "Yeah, but the creme brulee's all mine."

"Augh! You are _so gross_, never mind!"

Ryan laughed and took his hat back. She let him, trying to hide her smile.


End file.
